Wharfedale Aura 2 review by ErinsAudioCorner

[y260]

I say all the above to conclude that I will probably be getting rid of them

Thanks for the honesty. I have read a few others in this thread and elsewhere that have returned the Aura 2's. On paper they seem solid. 3-way, mostly uniform response, good construction, fancy colors/design.... yet they aren't sticking around too long...

Maybe I'll go against good judgement and get a pair anyway. I'll certainly wait for a sale though. $1000 stands are brutal

 

[Matt34]

Thanks for the honesty. I have read a few others in this thread and elsewhere that have returned the Aura 2's. On paper they seem solid. 3-way, mostly uniform response, good construction, fancy colors/design.... yet they aren't sticking around too long...

Maybe I'll go against good judgement and get a pair anyway. I'll certainly wait for a sale though. $1000 stands are brutal

Yeah, the stand price is dumb, more than the Elysian 2 stands. The Monolith stands I have now are fine for 1/10 the price.

I've put the Aura 2 back in my main system after another week with the JBL Studio 680. I'm going to give them another week or two before I make my decision. I'm in no rush and like I said before, these are very good speakers and I wouldn't fault anyone that absolutely falls in love with them.

 

[Matt34]

I unboxed the Revel M016 again and started listening to the Civil Wars "Poison and Wine" back to back against the Aura's. The Revels do male and female voices more naturally imo, the Aura's have an edge to them, I like piano and acoustic guitar on the Revels better too.

If you like a more forward presentation of the AMT with a little more bite, the Aura's are for you. Or maybe you do a lot of low volume listening. The damn Revels are just so smooth and coherent without being warm (i.e Linton's) or dull.

I know there is nothing scientific to this, just my impressions after using the measurements to decide what speakers to try.

 

[Jim165]

Definitely not returning mine! I love the balance and the fantastic midrange and now with a couple weeks worth of varied play, they’ve opened up more and sound fantastic. Definitely keepers for me. Especially love the aesthetic and finish of the walnut.

 

[Deleted member 71304]

Definitely not returning mine! I love the balance and the fantastic midrange and now with a couple weeks worth of varied play, they’ve opened up more and sound fantastic. Definitely keepers for me. Especially love the aesthetic and finish of the walnut.

Are you using a sub with the Auras?

 

[Jim165]

Are you using a sub with the Auras?

I am not using a sub. The office is somewhat small and I get great bass for the space. I can EQ in as much bass as I need from these and they provide plenty for me, especially since they’ve loosened up. I think larger rooms like a living room would definitely benefit from a sub. This space is for mostly easy listening/working but if I have to crank it up, I have a home theater with 2 12” subs I can do 2.2 channel. I’m changing out that old rug by the way, lol…

 

[Deleted member 71304]

I am not using a sub. The office is somewhat small and I get great bass for the space. I can EQ in as much bass as I need from these and they provide plenty for me, especially since they’ve loosened up. I think larger rooms like a living room would definitely benefit from a sub. This space is for mostly easy listening/working but if I have to crank it up, I have a home theater with 2 12” subs I can do 2.2 channel. I’m changing out that old rug by the way, lol…

Nice room!
Thanks for your response, I am going to buy a umik-1 to measure the bass response (I wonder if it might even deep under 40Hz with room reinforcement)

 

[Jim165]

Nice room!
Thanks for your response, I am going to buy a umik-1 to measure the bass response (I wonder if it might even deep under 40Hz with room reinforcement)

Thanks! How large is your room? Is it a living area or dedicated listening area?

 

[Deleted member 71304]

I have them in my living room, which is ca. 25 sqm but does not have a regular shape.
Regarding SPL the Auras can go as loud as one wants with no hint of distorsion (I am using a Hypex NCx500 power amp)
Though Erins review shows some issues in vertical dispersion I am not able to hear them (my hearing is fortunately not that good)
Regarding stands I never even remotely considered getting the original ones. I do not care at all about stands, have them placed on wooden boxes I made myself (Homer Simpson's style)

 

[Jim165]

I have them in my living room, which is ca. 25 sqm but does not have a regular shape.
Regarding SPL the Auras can go as loud as one wants with no hint of distorsion (I am using a Hypex NCx500 power amp)
Though Erins review shows some issues in vertical dispersion I am not able to hear them (my hearing is fortunately that good)
Regarding stands I never even remotely considered getting the original ones. I do not care at all about stands, have them placed on wooden boxes I made myself (Homer Simpson's style)

I hear ya. Sounds like a goood setup! Would love to see it. Your room’s roughly an irregular 15ft long and wide? Mine is like 13x13ftx10ft high. The stands were one of my major considerations for these speakers…they are severely overpriced, yes, but I just love the style. 26lbs each and very high quality!

 

[y260]

I ended up going Aura 3. In a medium room they are loud, so the Aura 2 would've probably been fine as well. The 3's are deceptively large/heavy, so if you're thinking 4's you should have a huge space.

Blending them with a subwoofer now. While the 3's reportedly dig a little lower, there are no measurements out there so I am using the Aura 2 measurements and have it crossed over at 70hz, which sounds nice (and preserves my modest 60w amp power, sending low end to a 1500w sub). I suppose you could not run a subwoofer but I am spoiled with sub 30hz

 

[Deleted member 71304]

I ended up going Aura 3. In a medium room they are loud, so the Aura 2 would've probably been fine as well. The 3's are deceptively large/heavy, so if you're thinking 4's you should have a huge space.

Blending them with a subwoofer now. While the 3's reportedly dig a little lower, there are no measurements out there so I am using the Aura 2 measurements and have it crossed over at 70hz, which sounds nice (and preserves my modest 60w amp power, sending low end to a 1500w sub). I suppose you could not run a subwoofer but I am spoiled with sub 30hz

View attachment 406509

So how do you like your Aura 3s so far? Happy with the purchase?
Have you tried them without sub? According to specs they should be able to dip even below 30hz

 

[y260]

So how do you like your Aura 3s so far? Happy with the purchase?
Have you tried them without sub? According to specs they should be able to dip even below 30hz

It's been a rollercoaster. When I first unboxed them I would say I was a little underwhelmed with the sound. It sounded like overall definition was less than my Airpulse A100's. I was also noticing some sharpness in the treble that made me turn the volume down (I can be sensitive to that). Not a great first impression.

Since then the 3's have grown on me a lot. I'll stop short of saying "my ears adjusted", but some of that lack of definition impression was due to the sound character just being different than my last set. Regarding the sharpness, I would now call it more loudness than sharpness. I think it has something to do with the TV source material, where my last set of speakers were powered DSP-corrected active speakers that ate up anything I threw at it and the Aura's are passive speakers.

The Aura's completely fill a medium sized living room, which is what I was trying to accomplish in the first place. They are plenty loud with the WiiM Amp Pro. There is a nagging thought that I should've bought a more powerful amp, maybe a NAD C389. But based on Amir's reviews the signal is clean, and my train of thought is that I would be sending the majority of the low end amps to the sub anyway.

The WiiM has been great by the way and I run everything through HDMI-ARC and volume control works fine on a Samsung TV, if a little delayed. Actual ms sound delay hasn't proven to be a problem yet, which I thought it might be with some twitchier games I play.

 

[y260]

And the other part of your question about the sub. For my situation, I still need a sub with them. They seem to hit the low frequencies, but the impact isn't there. We can probably chalk that mostly up to 60w amp

 

[Deleted member 71304]

And the other part of your question about the sub. For my situation, I still need a sub with them. They seem to hit the low frequencies, but the impact isn't there. We can probably chalk that mostly up to 60w amp

Thanks for sharing; regarding bass I feel the Aura 2 are quite amazing, so I thought the 3s should be even better (but this is just my subjective impression)
Gladto hear you are happy with them

 

[Pritaudio]

The super Linton are similar price.
They have an improved cabinet and also benefit from larger drivers.

 

[Earwax]

I bought the Wharfedale Arura 2 with stands. Paired with topping B100's & Topping D50 III...

Side ported on both sides of each speaker fills my condo living room with very much bass even at low volumes.

The sound stage of these with the Side ports is brilliant, with the proper flac or high quality online recording your in the audience or inside the studio.

TV and or movies is also excellent zero complaints the bass extension of 33 HZ is accurate to 6 db so no need for a subwoofer for most cases unless your wanting lower the 33 HZ.
The bonus is you have 2 speakers at 33HZ !

The ATM tweeters appear more realistic as swapping back to the JBL N28 with dome titanium coated tweeters it was obvious just how much louder they are in the higher frequencies, that said the ATM tweeters cover a wider range of frequencies than a dome at least in general and from my limited knowledge...

My recommendation is Amirm Needs these in his personal collection

No regrets spending $5000 CAD taxes included for a pair of Arura 2 speakers and stands delivered.

I went through Vinyl Sound . Ca online they gave me discounted pricing just call them ask for best price.
They used Mofi distributors for my purchase.

Mine arrived with some cosmetic imperfections Daniel was quick to resolve this having Mofi send replacements.
I just dropped to post office in the Saturday so waiting for the replacements to arrive. No charge for shipping obviously.

Tweeter rubber was bulged at one spot and same speaker the finish was rubbed off or not cured before handling.

That box was also damaged from shipping one corner was crushed in and repaired so no chances taken on that otherwise would have considered discount...

The JBL N28 are very sweet excellent speakers of great quality for the price point 20 years ago and when compared to the Arura 2 It appears I'm getting my money's worth out if the Wharfedale Arura 2's .

If I can clear anything up for anyone considering these I'm happy to help.

Speaker placement 8 feet apart from center of Tweeters then 8 feet from listening position. Toe them out just slightly to have mid bass driver pointed just past your ears gives me best sound stage so far..

Those sound stage speaker placement measurements are also recommended by Erin.

 

[Earwax]

More of comparisons. They are also literally double the weight.

 

[Earwax]

Just a heads up if you're thinking about ordering from vinylsound.ca I had delays and...

placed the order May 24, May 28 I contacted Daniel asking when i would receive them and was told 7 days. After that my inquires were ignored even through emails.

June 12th I had to text Daniel telling him to cancel my order or ill do it through visa before I even got a response about my speakers arrival date.

June 12 they arrived at his warehouse then finally June 20 i was able to pick them up at the post office.

I had to return them due to cosmetic defects,

I was told clearly when they received the speakers back the replacements were already at their warehouse waiting to be shipped right away.

They received the speakers back Thursday July 10 it's now Saturday July 12 and I still have no tracking number.

I texted Daniel asking about the shipping Arrival date and was told they received the return and the replacements are being shipped from mofi distributors to their warehouse then they will ship them to me,
and again I have no shipping date expection from Daniel.

So I was lied to about my speakers being at their warehouse so now I have actually no idea when they will arrive, this is very unprofessional and disappointing and I'm honestly Angered by this lack of effort and deception.

Just had to be completely honest about my experience as I couldn't delete thier name from my post above so know you now what to expect.

 

[Earwax]

I forgot to post up the replacements arrived and in mint condition.

Other than the lack of effort on shipping arrival dates and being false promised early arrival probably to keep you from looking elsewhere I had no issues.

I get the pressure to keep you but they should stand tall and be completely transparent on shipping dates as they do offer the best pricing in Canada !!!!